HEALTH

Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV (Annual Report)

Caroline Flint: We are today issuing our response to the third annual report from the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, (SHIAG) published in October 2005. A copy has been placed in the Library. The response is also available on the Department of Health website: www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/10/44/04121044.pdf.
	Copies of the SHIAG Report are also available in the Library.
	The report's recommendations are grouped under four main headings: delivering improved services; developing new services; enhancing professional skills and promoting sexual health and wellbeing in the 21st century.
	To deliver improved sexual health services, we have included sexual health as a key National Health Service priority for the coming year. This priority is being supported by the Department at a local level with the majority of extra funding announced in the "Choosing Health" White Paper for sexual health being disbursed over the next two financial years.
	The publication "The NHS in England: the operating framework for the NHS for 2006–07" highlights as a priority for action
	"Sexual health and 48 hour access to Genito-urinary Medicine (GUM) clinics".
	Faster access to GUM services means that Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) will be treated more quickly and therefore the risk of their spreading or complications developing will reduce. This will help to drive STI rates down to much lower levels, meaning better health for individuals and better value for money for the taxpayer and the Government.
	Faster access to GUM services will involve a renewed focus on modernisation and re-engineering of all sexual health services including those in reproductive health, in particular contraception. It signals the need to continue to do more in the community and develop a range of settings for sexual health services. This has been further reinforced with our recent White Paper "Our Care, Our Health Our Say", which fires the starting gun on the development of better community based and more patient-centred services across the board, and indeed the White Paper makes specific reference to sexual health as an important area for these developments. This will go hand in hand with the work we are doing on training in support of the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare.
	To date, we have made some solid progress. Already 49 per cent. of patients are accessing GUM services within 48 hours, and in some areas, the percentage is significantly higher. Gonorrhoea rates, which are acknowledged as the best indicators of overall STI rates, measured in GUM services are decreasing. This is a welcome indication of progress being made.
	The Chlamydia Screening Programme will help drive down the rates of Chlamydia, the most common STI in both men and women and crucially it will help reduce the incidence of infertility, which can occur by leaving Chlamydia untreated, and will ultimately save the NHS over £100 million per year in treatment.
	The roll-out of this world leading programme is well advanced, targeting those most at risk of infection—under 25 year olds. To December 2005 nearly 150,000 screening tests have been carried out and numbers screened are rapidly increasing. By 2007, the screening programme will cover the whole of England in line with the commitment in the "Choosing Health" White Paper. As part of this work, a new innovative pilot programme should help to reach young people. The key drivers of the project are wider and easier access to screening services in order to provide quick and easily available screening options. We have contracted with Boots to evaluate the potential of retail pharmacies as Chlamydia screening venues. This was launched in all its London pharmacies in November 2005.
	Our ambition is to mainstream sexual health as far as possible. Every part of society needs to be involved in the effort to improve sexual health. Indeed, whilst the Government have clearly prioritised this issue, it is not just about Government action but also about a range of organisations, and in particular it is about individuals taking responsibility for their own sexual health. It is only by doing this that we will fully achieve good sexual health and the world-class health services, which we are aiming for.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Occupational Pensions

Stephen Timms: In her report published today, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has found that some of the information issued by the Department for Work and Pensions and the then Department of Social Security on the security of occupational pensions amounts to maladministration. She has made a similar finding with regard to a decision made in 2002 on the calculation of the Minimum Funding Requirement for salary related occupational pension schemes. The Government do not accept these findings.
	The Government recognise the hardship and distress faced by those people who have lost all or part of their pension when their pension schemes have, or are being, wound up. That is why we have set up the Financial Assistance Scheme, with £400 million of public money. But, having carefully considered the Ombudsman's report, the Government do not believe that it makes a sustainable case that maladministration occurred or that these losses were the responsibility of Government. In the Government's view the responsibility for the schemes rested with the companies whose schemes have been, or are being, wound up and with the trustees who, with the benefit of professional advice, were responsible for protecting members' interests.
	In respect of the Ombudsman's specific findings the Government do not consider that any of the named leaflets or quoted statements could have formed a proper basis for scheme members, still less trustees who were professionally advised, to assess the security of their individual pension schemes. The leaflets were general and introductory in nature. They were not a full statement of the law. They made both those points clear. In addition, the Government believe that the report fails to demonstrate that decisions taken by individual scheme members were influenced by the information which the Government did, or did not, make available.
	As far as the 2002 decision on the Minimum Funding Requirement is concerned, the Government believe that we acted wholly responsibly in implementing the recommendation of the actuarial profession which had received the backing of the Government Actuary's Department.
	Against this background, the Government have considered carefully the Ombudsman's first four recommendations—which involve considering whether to restore the lost pension rights of affected scheme members, making consolatory payments and apologising to scheme trustees. As the Government are unable to accept the findings on which those recommendations are based and do not consider that it would be in the wider public interest for tax payers to fund all lost pension benefits we do not believe that it would be appropriate to take the action suggested.
	The Government do, however, accept the Ombudsman's fifth recommendation with regard to reviewing the time it takes to wind up a defined benefit pension scheme. Work is already underway in this area.